All posts by Mike

Peg Perego Primo Viaggio Convertible Review: Worth It!

June 26, 2014 Mike

When it comes to car safety, you can focus on driving safely and you can focus on choosing a safe car. However, if you have children, you also need to focus on choosing a safe car seat. This is one of a series of reviews I’ll write on what I consider to be the best car seats currently available in the United States. This review has to do with Peg Perego’s Primo Viaggio, the convertible counterpart to their stylish and safe 4-35 infant seat.

Peg Perego Primo Viaggio – What’s the big deal?

The Peg Perego Primo Viaggio SIP 5-70 Convertible has a very long name, but functionality is what’s important, and in terms of functionality, this is one of the most impressive seats on the market. It’s a convertible car seat, which means it can be used in several configurations, including as a rear-facing infant seat, a forward-facing seat, and of course, as a booster. It’s the first convertible available from Peg Perego, and aims to bring a sense of style to the car seat market while enabling parents to rear-face their children longer. Is it worth it? Read on to find out!

Buy the Primo Viaggio on Sale with free shipping at Amazon.

Peg Perego Primo Viaggio Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 5-45 pounds. Your child’s head should not reach past 1″ below the top of the headrest. There is no given height limit for the child besides the 1″ rule. I measure the shell height as around 24″, which is slightly shorter than my measurements for the Diono seats it competes with for ERF.

Forward-facing: 22-70 pounds, and under 49″ in height. Your child should be at least 1, and it’s recommended that s/he is at least 2. Of course, research into car safety indicates children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible (the average is 4 years in Sweden, which posts the lowest child fatality rate on Earth), and after rear-facing, the child should remain forward-facing as long as possible.

Dimensions of the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio

The seat is 18.5″ wide at its widest point, which is at the torso of the child. The seat weighs 21 pounds, which makes it the lightest seat I’ve reviewed so far that allows 45 pounds of rear-facing goodness.

Using the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio

Something I like about the Primo Viaggio is that it’s a good looking seat. Yes, yes, we’re interested in the best car seats because they allow you to rear-face for a long, long time, as our Swedish brethren do, but it’s also nice to have style. It’s also made in Italy, which might be important to you for political or aesthetic reasons. More practically, the Fresco Jersey fabric is designed to be easily cleaned, although I didn’t dare spill anything on it to try it out (who would willingly on a seat that looks this good?). It is also supposed to be breathable and good at absorbing moisture, which will come in handy if you use the seat in a warmer part of the country or don’t have air conditioning. Of course, given Peg Perego’s general aesthetic, they probably presume you have air conditioning and maybe even leather seats.

Besides all of that, it’s also an easy, easy, easy seat to install. You essentially position yourself behind the seat when installing it rear-facing, click the pair of latch straps into position, and then move from one side to the other while you work the straps until they’re tight. There’s a leveling line on the side that helps you get the recline angle correctly set up. The fact that the seat also only weighs 21 pounds means you won’t throw out your back during the years that you use it to ERF, although ideally, you won’t be moving it from one place to another frequently since your child will get heavier, even though the seat won’t. If you do need to move it, though, it only takes about 2 or 3 minutes to completely transition it from one vehicle to another, which helps.

Buy the Primo Viaggio on Sale with free shipping at Amazon.

Why Buy the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio?

This is the meat and potatoes of this car seat. The Primo Viaggio is one of a handful of seats in the United States that allows you to rear-face a child for up to 45 pounds. This isn’t as good as it gets anymore, but it’s pretty close. Every pound is precious, as the longer you rear-face, the safer your child is. In the US, parents tend to turn their children around into the line of fire at 1. In Sweden, this typically isn’t done until 4. Children in Sweden are far less likely to die in car crashes than children in the US. It makes that much of a difference. This alone is reason enough to buy the Primo Viaggio.

Besides that fact, the Primo Viaggio uses a good amount of EPS foam on the seat’s sides to protect your child from side impacts. Per Peg Perego (say that three times fast), it’s designed to protect the head, neck, and spine of the child, and the Side Impact Protection system is also adjustable. It even includes a bit of EPP foam (named SAFE, for a shock absorbing foam element) below the seat that is designed to crush during a collision, absorbing forces that would otherwise be transferred to your child’s neck and shoulders. I’m also a fan of the headrest, which is 8.5″ wide and practically guaranteed to fit even the largest heads.

Something else that’s neat about the Primo Viaggio is that it’s one of only a handful of seats in the United States that can currently be tethered while rear-facing as well as while forward-facing. It isn’t required to rear-face tether, but it does have its advantages, which I’ll discuss in a forthcoming article.

Finally, as noted above, the Primo Viaggio is also simply an easier seat to install than most, due to its narrow width of 18.5 inches. That means it’s actually possible to install 3 across in a number of midsized vehicles.

The biggest strike against the Primo Viaggio is the fact that there are seats that allow you to RF slightly longer by weight. However, if the weight of the seat itself and the style of the seat are important to you, the Primo Viaggio will give you both while still helping you ERF.

I recommend the Primo Viaggio wholeheartedly. You can buy the Primo Viaggio in a range of colors here. Canadians can buy the Primo Viaggo here.

Diono Radian RXT Review: Still Worth It! With R120, R100 Comparisons

June 25, 2014 Mike

The Diono Radian RXT is one of the best seats on the car seat market right now for extended rear-facing, even if it’s no longer one of the newest. With the ability to rear-face until 45 pounds and continue forward-facing for a while longer, the Diono Radian RXT is well worth consideration as a safe, secure car seat for newborns through elementary-aged children.

2018 update: The Radian RXT, as well as all other Diono convertibles, were recently recalled by Diono and new versions were released addressing a potential safety issue involving top tethers. Every seat manufactured from October 2017 onward has been modified to resolve the issue.

I’ve reviewed several Diono convertibles over the years and found all of them, without exception, strong choices for extended rear-facing and forward-facing, even though they’ve had different levels of practicality when used as booster seats.

Today, instead of reviewing the Diono Rainier, Radian R120, or Radian R100, I’m going to take a closer look at the Diono RXT All-In-One Convertible Car Seat. Much like the RXT in 2017 before the recall I mentioned above, the RXT is still essentially the same seat it has been since its release several years ago; weight and height limits haven’t changed, although fabrics have been tweaked slightly. It’s still one of the best seats on the market for extended rear-facing. Our full review is below, and you can buy the Diono Radian RXT here.

Diono Radian RXT – What’s the big deal?

Everyone today is talking about the Diono Rainier, Pacifica, and Olympia. However, before they came out, Diono had already been establishing a tradition of narrow, high-weight car seats that are still worth considering even if they aren’t the newest seats on the market anymore. The Diono Radian RXT is an all-in-one convertible car seat, which means it can be used in several configurations, including as a rear-facing infant seat, a forward-facing seat, and of course, as a booster.

Despite its age, the Radian RXT is a car seat that should be on every parent’s shopping list. The seat has received some unwarranted criticism by a number of fly-by-night reviewers interested in marketing more expensive seats (e.g., the Nuna Rava or Clek Fllo), but in the end, what matters most is whether a seat is easy to use and has the weight and height limits to keep your kids in safer positions longer, and the Radian RXT checks those boxes handily.

Buy the Diono Radian RXT on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon. Canadians can buy it here.

Diono Radian RXT Limits for Weight and Height

Rear-facing: 5-45 pounds, and up to 44″ in height. Your child’s head should not reach past 1.5″ below the top of the headrest. Its low starting weight limit, infant insert, and adjustable harness mean you’ll be safe transporting typical newborns home in one from the hospital; you don’t need an infant seat unless you want one.

While you can technically begin forward-facing from the day your baby turns a year old in most states, best practices (e.g., what’s done in Sweden) suggests rear-facing as long as possible with 4 being a good minimum age to aim for.

Forward-facing: 20-80 pounds, and up to 57″ in height. Diono notes in the manual that children may forward face from 1 onward but recommend waiting until 2. That said, research into car safety indicates children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible. Norway has joined Sweden as one of the two countries with the lowest rates of child auto fatalities on Earth, and like Sweden, they attribute a large part of the world-leading progress they’ve made to extended rear-facing until 4.

Booster mode: 50-120 pounds, and up to 57″ in height. As with the latest Diono seats, the shoulders of the child must at least reach the 4th pair of harness slots.

Remember that children should remain in booster seats until their seat belts fit them over the shoulder, across the chest, and flat on the upper thighs; this is known as the 5-step test for seat belt readiness, and it’s the most accurate way we have of knowing when kids are ready to transition to using adult seat belts.

More broadly, remember that there’s nothing wrong with a middle schooler or pre-teen in a booster seat if she doesn’t pass the 5-step test, no matter how often she rolls her eyes at you.

Dimensions of the Diono Radian RXT

The seat is 17″ wide at its widest point, which is at the shoulders. The seat weighs 26.5 pounds.

Inside, it is around 14″ wide at the widest upper portion at the shoulders and slightly larger at the thighs. Its narrow dimensions makes it one of the absolute best choices for 3 across installations in small cars; it can mix and match with other seats to make installations possible with seat belts that wouldn’t be possible in most vehicles.

Using the Diono Radian RXT

The seat arrives folded nicely in a box that seems well designed for it. The seat arrives in a collapsed mode, so you can hook straps up to it and tote it around as a backpack, which works really nicely if you’re planning on taking it on an airplane or with taxis, which do require car seats for safety. It’s also airplane compliant, which is great for travelers. All of the LATCH straps are held in the back, including seat belt clips that may be needed for older cars.The engineering of the seat is solid, and you can see where the newer generations of Dionos came from when you look at the Radian RXT.

You might need to adjust the straps out of the box, but the learning curve is gentle. Keep in mind that you cannot install it in the center of your vehicle with a LATCH set up unless you have dedicated LATCH hookups there; this is common to almost every car seat on the market today in the United States. This means you’ll need to use a seat belt installation along with a locking clip for a middle seat install, and this might be a bit troublesome.

There are 5 shoulder harness positions that range from 9″ on the low end to 17.5″ on the high end. The recline base must be used when the seat is in a rear-facing position. Because there are 5 different slots for harness height, most children are going to find a position that fits them comfortably for as long as they use the seat. You adjust the harness height from behind the seat by removing straps from the splitting plate and rethreading them into the desired slot. If your child is rear-facing, the slots need to be at or below the shoulders, while they need to be above for forward-facing. Diono is unique in that they do allow you to have forward-facing children with shoulders above the top shoulder harness slots as long as these children stay within the forward-facing weight limit and have the tops of their ears below the top of the car seat.

There is an angle adjuster that is frequently sold alongside the Diono line, as it helps cut down on the extremely large amount of space that the seat can take up when used in the rear-facing configuration. Depending on the size of your vehicle and the amount of space you need in the front seats, you may want to consider purchasing this. This is likely to be the case if you set the seat up directly behind the passenger or driver seats in the first row.

Buy the Diono Radian RXT on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon. Canadians can buy it here.

Why Buy the Diono Radian RXT?

This is the meat and potatoes of this car seat. The Radian RXT is one of a handful of seats in the United States that allows you to rear-face a child for up to 45 pounds. It’s not as good as it gets anymore, but it’s pretty close. Every pound is precious, as the longer you rear-face, the safer your child is. In the US, parents tend to turn their children around into the line of fire at 1. In Sweden, this typically isn’t done until 4. Children in Sweden are far less likely to die in car crashes than children in the US. It makes that much of a difference. This alone is reason enough to buy the Radian RXT.

Besides that fact, the Radian RXT also includes a steel frame and an aluminum reinforced headrest for reinforced head support, in addition to EPS foam around the child’s head and body to increase levels of side impact protection. The sidewalls are also deeper than in similar Diono models, including its R120 and R100 siblings, to increase side protection. All of these are good things.

Something else that’s neat about the RXT is that it’s one of only a handful of seats in the United States that can currently be tethered while rear-facing as well as while forward-facing. It isn’t required to rear-face tether, but rear-facing tethering does have its advantages, which I’ll discuss in a forthcoming article.

Finally, the Radian RXT is also simply an easier seat to install than most, due to its narrow width of 17 inches. That means it’s actually possible to install 3 across in a number of smaller vehicles. I also like the fact that it has a 10-year usable life when used as a booster and an 8 year life when used with a harness (remember, car seats do expire eventually), which is still among the longest in the industry right now, although not as long as the booster limits in the newer Dionos, which are 12 years. I also like that it is certified to use on airplanes when used with the harnesses.

What About the Newer Seats?

The newer Diono seats are definitely flashier, come with longer product lives, and in the case of the Rainier and Pacifica, higher RF limits. However, none of this changes the effectiveness of the Radian RXT. If you don’t need the newer belts and whistles or are looking to save a bit of money, I’d suggest looking seriously at the RXT alongside the newer Dionos.

The width point is particularly important to consider, as that’s an area where the RXT is clearly superior to the newer Dionos. I’ve compared both during installations, and there’s no question that the flaring out design of the sides of the newer Dionos makes them more difficult to puzzle with other car seats when trying to set up 3 across installations. It’s still possible to do 3 across with a new Diono, but not to the degree that it is with an older one like an RXT or a Radian. Keep this in mind if you’re driving a small class vehicle like a Prius, Civic, Corollla, or Insight.

The Radian RXT is an excellent car seat and, in my opinion, still one of the best currently available in the United States for children between zero and five. You can buy the Diono Radian RXT in a range of colors here, including several versions of black, one blue, one red, and one purple print. Canadians can buy the Radian RXT here.

Courtney Ann Sanford, 32, in High Point, NC, Dies in Car vs. Dump Truck Crash

June 24, 2014 Mike

Who:
Courtney Ann Sanford, 32, from Clemmons, died in High Point, NC, close to Baker Road at around 8:30 AM on Thursday, 4/24/14, in her 2005 Toyota Corolla. She collided with a metal recycling truck. She died instantly. The truck driver, John Wallace Thompson, 73, was unhurt.

How:
Sanford was northbound on Bus. 85 when she crossed the median and crashed into a southbound metal recycling truck. Per police reports, Sanford was traveling at 45 mph at the time of impact. After the collision, her car caught fire, although the flames were put out quickly. The truck left the road and impacted a tree. Per police reports, Sanford’s cell phone showed she had made a final Facebook post to friends at 8:33 AM, one minute prior to the report of the accident. A review of Sanders’ cell phone also indicated that she had been taking and posting pictures, or selfies, of herself while driving. Per investigators, Sanford’s last post was: “The happy song makes me HAPPY,” Her friends apparently notified investigators later that day due to the coincidence of the time stamp of the Facebook post and the time of the accident. Sanford was also reportedly wearing a seat belt, but it was somehow fastened improperly.

Why:
This collision was completely preventable. The culprit was distracted driving. Specifically, Sanders was taking pictures of herself, texting, and posting to Facebook in the minutes preceding and leading to the moment of impact. Texting is implicated in a number of fatal crashes per year, and is considered to impair driving abilities as much as alcoholic consumption.

Given the physics of the crash, the results are sadly unsurprising. The 2005 Corolla weighed ~2582 lbs and came with a good frontal score. It was impacted by what appears to be a standard 10-wheel dump truck, which can weigh at least 24,000 lbs. That’s at least 930% of the weight the Corolla would have experienced in an IIHS front impact test.

Given the likely speeds of the collision (~45 mph), the collision likely imparted at least 2.2MJ of energy into the Corolla. The standard front impact test for the Corolla would simulate 187KJ of energy (a Corolla impacting its twin at 40 mph). In other words, she faced 1176% of the force she’d have experienced in the types of crashes Corollas are front rated for. Given these forces, her odds of survival were, sadly, virtually non-existent.

The reconstruction of this crash is sadly summarized concisely by the police spokesperson’s statements here:

‘In a matter of seconds, a life was over just so she could notify some friends that she was happy.’

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If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.

When Is it Safe to Switch From Forward-Facing to a Booster Car Seat?

June 23, 2014 Mike

If you're looking for a combination seat, it doesn't get better than the Britax Frontier right now. — If you’re looking for a combination seat, it doesn’t get better than the Britax Frontier right now.

I’ve written before about the importance of keeping young children rear-facing as long as possible, but am always keen to write more on the topic. It’s why the only car seats I recommend and review are those with the highest rear-facing and forward-facing limits currently available in the United States. The Frontier G1.1, pictured above, is the best forward-facing and booster seat you can buy today.

However, another area where most parents aren’t following best practices involves the transition from forward-facing children in 5-point harnesses to using booster seats. When should this be done? When is too early? What makes it too early? This post is designed to answer these kinds of questions and to serve as a reference to be shared.

First, Rear-Face to the Limits

First of all, for physiological reasons, we should try to rear-face our children until they’ve outgrown the height or weight limits for their seats. Children’s spinal cords and musculature are in development, and simply aren’t as strong as those of adults or even older children. Rear-facing them distributes forces more easily and offers them much more protection than forward-facing. The best seats right now, the Clek Fllo, the Clek Foonf, the Diono Rainier, the Graco Extend2Fit, the Graco Extend2Fit 3-in-1, the Graco 4Ever Extend2Fit, the Nuna Rava, the Safety 1st Advance EX 65 Air+, and the Safety 1st Grow and Go EX Air, provide up to 50 lbs of rear-facing time by weight, allowing most kids to rear-face until at least 5.

That’s standard practice in Sweden.

Whether you’re forward-facing at 50 lbs or earlier, but still at the limits of your seat, you’ll want to keep doing so until your child outgrows his or her forward-facing seat by weight or height. Remember that straps should be at or above the child’s shoulders and the ears of the child should be below the top of the shell. Also remember to attach the top tether every time the seat is installed or in use.

Let’s say you’ve checked off all of the issues above, but your child happens to be 4 (or 3, or 2…). Can you switch?

Don’t Rush Boostering Your Child

No! It’s too early. This is just like how the current law for forward-facing in the US is that it can be done (though it’s a bad idea) from when the child is 1. Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right. For example, it’s legal to drive cars without seat belts (really!) in the US as long as they were made before seat belts were required in vehicles (in the mid 1960s). Does that mean it’s a good idea?

No! Because there’s yet another factor to consider, and that’s the positioning of the child. Something most parents don’t know is that a child needs to be able to stay seated properly (as in upright, and not leaning forward, to the left, to the right, or reaching for things or twisting back and forth or horsing around) 100% of the time, including while asleep, in order to be a safe booster candidate.

This is the maturity angle that’s very easy to overlook, and this is part of why booster training is recommended and keeping young children out of them is also a good idea. If a wriggly child is in a 5-point-harness, he or she is kept safe in a collision (although not as safe as when rear-facing, but we can’t rear-face them forever). If that same wriggly child is wriggling in a seat belt, he or she will fare much worse in a collision, as the belt will not be able to protect him or her nearly as well.

So What’s a Minimum Age for Using a Booster?

So what’s the earliest you should even *consider* switching from forward-facing to a booster? Personally, I’d suggest waiting until 5 at a minimum. Why? Because right now, right this day, there are seats that can keep children rear-facing until then. Growth charts show that a 50th percentile girl will reach 50 lbs at age 7 and 44″ at 5 years, 5 months. A 50th percentile boy will reach 50 lbs and 44″ at exactly the same ages. In other words, the average child won’t outgrow the best convertibles on the market until s/he is around 5 and a half years old!

But what if you don’t have the budget for a 50 pound rear-facing seat? Well, the growth charts above show that a 50th percentile child will reach 40 pounds at around age 5. This means that a 40 pound convertible like the Graco Size4Me 65 that’s tall enough to allow virtually all children to outgrow it by weight instead of by height will be able to keep the average child rear-facing until 5!

Placing children in a booster when they’re still capable of fitting in a rear-facing seat is unnecessarily risky, somewhat like riding in our metaphorical seat belt free car when you’ve got a perfectly normal seat belted car at your disposal. The odds are that you won’t crash, but the odds will be dramatically against you if you do. The same goes for young children placed in boosters when they’d fit in rear-facing seats.

Now what if your child is on the taller or heavier end, or you simply don’t have the finances for a high weight/height convertible? Is your only option to booster your young child?

No. You can booster–in fact, the research doesn’t show a safety difference for forward-facing seats and booster seats for children who are old enough to sit properly in booster seats–but you can also forward-face.

It’s really up to you and the maturity of your child

On one hand, Swedish kids start forward-facing when they’re 4 or 5, and they have the best records of child auto fatalities on the planet. However, you know your child best, and it’s all right to keep forward-facing until the seat is outgrown. Most forward-facing seats allow you to do so until at least 65 pounds, and that’s the equivalent of a 9-year-old 50th percentile child (keeping in mind that most children will outgrow most seats by height before by weight).

However, ignoring seat fit questions and focusing on age for the moment, will a 7, 8, or 9-year-old be able to be taught to sit maturely in a booster seat with a seat belt? Yes! Is the same going to be true for a 2, 3, or 4-year-old?

I doubt it. To be honest, I doubt it’ll be true for most children in the US under 5, which is where I think the average child will be ready to transition into a booster seat. So in general, I’d recommend waiting until at least 5 for many kids, with 4 as the absolute minimum.

The NHTSA recommendation is to forward-face until 8 if possible. But to draw the line at a real-world absolute minimum point, I’d draw it at age 5, for both physiological, developmental, and practical reasons. Physiologically, their bodies simply aren’t ready before 5. Developmentally, they aren’t nearly mature enough before 5. Practically, there are seats that can keep them rear-facing until 5 or even beyond.

All of this adds up to suggest children should not be switched from forward-facing car seats into booster configurations until they’re at least 5, and optionally not until 8. It’s a bit more work, but it’s worth it. Here are the seats that are as good as it gets for rear, forward-facing, and boostering today in the United States. I wholeheartedly recommend them.

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Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus Review: Why Buy the Pinnacle Update?

June 22, 2014 Mike

The Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus is everything a booster car seat should be: a seat that keeps your children safe until they don’t need a booster seat anymore. It does this by offering the highest weight and height limits available for any booster seat on the market besides its cheaper sibling, the Frontier, and it does it while offering an extensive amount of side impact protection on top of an excellent and easy to use installation system. This is a review on the Pinnacle and why it should be the only booster seat you ever buy.

2020 update: Britax updated the Pinnacle 90 and renamed it the Pinnacle G.1.1. then dropped the Pinnacle moniker entirely and renamed it, somewhat confusingly, the Grow With You ClickTight Plus. The height and weight limits (as well as the dimensions and weight) of the seat remain the same. It’s still one of the two best combination seats on the market, as well as one of the best booster seats on the market.

Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus – What’s the big deal?

The Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus continues a tradition of versatile, high weight and height car seats that makes this one of the most impressive combination seats on the market. It’s a combination car seat, which means it can be used in two configurations: as a forward-facing seat and as a booster. Released by Britax alongside its high weight sibling the Frontier, the Pinnacle is a combination car seat that should be on every parent’s shopping list.

Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus Limits for Weight and Height

Forward-facing: 25-90 pounds, and between 30 and 58″ in height. The seated shoulder height of the child can range between 12.5 and 20.5.” The top harness straps need to either be at or above your child’s shoulders, and the ears of the child must not extend above the headrest. Your child should be at least 2-years-old. Of course, research into car safety indicates children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible (the average is 4 years in Sweden, which posts the lowest child fatality rate on Earth), and after rear-facing, the child should remain forward-facing as long as possible. Also note that using a harness is required when using the seat in harnessed mode if the child weighs more than 65 pounds, although Britax recommends it in every installation.

Booster mode: 40-120 pounds, and between 45 and 62″ in height. The seated shoulder height of the child can range between 15 and 23.” The shoulders of the child need to be at or below the shoulder belt positioner. Remember that children should remain in booster seats until their seat belts fit them over the shoulder, across the chest, and flat on the upper thighs, which is also known as the 5-step rule.

Buy the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Dimensions of the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus

The seat is 22.5″ wide at its widest point, which is at the shoulders. The seat weighs 26.5 pounds. Inside, it is around 15.5″ wide at the widest upper portion at the shoulders and 12″ wide in the seat area.

Using the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus

The seat arrives in a box that’s designed very well; you don’t have to struggle to get the seat out of the box, which is nice when you consider that it has a decent amount of weight behind it. The seat essentially just slides out, which is where the fun begins.

The installation of the seat is a dream. In fact, it’s my second favorite thing about the Pinnacle after its harness height range. What I’m talking about is the ClickTight seat belt installation system. It’s designed to allow you to make a safe installation through what is essentially an automatic belt tensioner. I love this! All you need to do is lift the cover so you see the ClickTight panel, route the belt through the green path as needed, and then close the cover. It only takes a few minutes in most vehicles, and from then on, all you need to do is attach your top tether strap to the appropriate tether anchor.

Don’t worry about LATCH weight limits! Don’t worry about complex paths for routing the belt! Don’t worry about locking clips! It’s that easy in the majority of vehicles. This is a reason that, by itself, would make the Pinnacle worth considering.

Besides this, the instructions are quite clear, the 5-point harness is designed to be very difficult to tangle, and the covers are easy to take off, which makes things easier for washing, since booster-aged children inevitably have spills and messes at one point or another.

Buy the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus on Sale with Free Shipping at Amazon here.

Why Buy the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus?

This is the meat and potatoes of this car seat. Along with the Frontier, the Pinnacle leads the car seat industry in the United States with its high top harness height setting of 20.5.” Most children outgrow their combination seats by height long before they do by weight simply because most combination seats only offer top harness heights, or upper shoulder heights for children, of 18″ or 19.” Remember that when forward-facing, with very few exceptions, a child can no longer use a seat once his or her shoulders are level with the top harness. Because of the mega-height of the Pinnacle, outgrowing it by height is a lot harder. Of course children who are in the tallest percentiles by height will still likely outgrow it by height before doing so by weight, but right now, this is as good as it gets. This alone is reason enough to buy the Pinnacle. The fact that it comes after the easy installation is just icing on the cake.

Besides that fact, the Pinnacle includes a feature that the Frontier does not: Side Impact Cushion Technology. What’s Side Impact Cushion Technology? It’s Britax’s code name for cushions designed to absorb energy that are situated on either side of the car seat. They reduce the energy of side impacts, per Britax, by funneling the forces around the child via the car seat, reducing the child’s exposure to the potentially life-threatening forces I discuss on a daily basis on this blog in side impact collisions. An added bonus is that the cushions are also designed to give a bit of extra protection to any passengers next to the Pinnacle. To me, that’s pretty amazing.

In addition to these features, the Pinnacle also includes a steel frame to keep the seat from flexing forward as much in the event of a crash. It also features EPP foam around the child’s head and body to increase levels of side impact protection and reduce stress and strain on the body during collisions. All of these are good things.

You can harness longer, although you’ll struggle to 3 across

As noted above, you are likely to be able to keep children safely harnessed while forward facing in the Pinnacle longer than in any other car seat, which is a good thing once you’re done rear-facing. Each transition in child seats signifies a decrease in safety (e.g., rear-facing is safer than forward-facing, which is safer than a booster position, which is safer than simply using a seat belt); the longer you can keep a child forward-facing in a harness, the better. Along with the Frontier, the Pinnacle now leads the field here.

Finally, the Pinnacle is wider than the Frontier by about 3 inches, which means it’s not going to be as easy to install in a 3 across position in a number of midsized vehicles. However, I like the fact that it has a 9-year usable life (remember, car seats do expire eventually), which is great, although there are seats with longer lifespans (e.g., the newest Dionos).

The Grow With You ClickTight Plus is an excellent car seat and, in my opinion, one of the two best combination car seats currently available in the United States for children above the age of 4. It’s likely to be the last seat your child needs before s/he is ready for a regular adult seat belt. You can buy the Britax Grow With You ClickTight Plus in a range of colors here. Canadians can buy the Pinnacle here.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases. It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.

35,000 Americans will die this year on the road. You don't have to be one of them. A car seat and car safety blog to promote best practices for families.